The federal student aid system has emerged as the primary source of funding for students pursuing a wide range of subbaccalaureate credentials. But the eligibility rules for federal student aid, offered under Title IV of the Higher Education Act, require a minimum program length of 600 hours for Pell grants, despite little evidence showing that…

Objective: The purpose of our study was to identify the factors associated with federal loan default among a nationally-representative sample of community college students. The guiding research question was: For community college students who borrow federal loans, to what extent do demographic, academic, and enrollment characteristics relate to…

Objective: Increasing rural community college degree attainment is very important to foster rural areas' economic and social well-being. Rural community colleges differ greatly from their suburban and urban counterparts in financial aid patterns and student bodies. However, existing literature is vacant with respect to student financial aid and…

The U.S. Department of Education's (ED's) National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS) is the nation's preeminent source of information on how students and their families pay for college. This paper explores how NCES can leverage linkages to federal and non-federal data sources to improve…

Students with a zero expected family contribution (EFC) are those with the greatest financial need and least ability to pay for college and now make up more than one in three American undergraduate students. Yet little is known about the year-to-year financial aid volatility of these students, or whether it varies by how the zero EFC was…

Student parents face many challenges, including paying for child care, that can make it difficult for them to complete a degree. The federal government supports student parents through Education's Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) program, which provides colleges funding for child care services, and federal student aid, which can…

In 2007-2008, approximately 42% of community college students who were eligible to receive Pell grant funding did not file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Using data from the Beginning Postsecondary Student Study, this study examined the relationship between FAFSA filing status and persistence from the fall to spring…

This overview of postsecondary education in the United States reviews the dramatic changes over the past fifty years in the students who go to college, the institutions that produce higher education, and the ways it is financed. The article, by Sandy Baum, Charles Kurose, and Michael McPherson, creates the context for the articles that follow on…

Every year, millions of students who would have qualified for financial aid do not complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Discouragingly, many of these students come from lower-income families and would have qualified for Pell Grants that do not have to be repaid. Using data from the Beginning Postsecondary Students…

The purpose of this study was to identify determinants of transfer. Accounting for variables in several domains (background, academic, social, environmental), this research was particularly interested in the effect of environment on transfer. Data employed in this study was derived from the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS:…

Examines the total direct and indirect effects of receiving financial aid on persistence to degree using a subsample of 1989 freshmen from the Beginning Postsecondary Student Survey. Analysis shows that although simply receiving financial aid is unrelated to persistence, the effects of financial aid on persistence appear to depend on type and…

This report uses data from the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study and the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study to examine how low income undergraduates (with family incomes below 125 percent of the federally established poverty threshold) finance their postsecondary education, focusing on the importance of financial aid. The…

The effects of financial aid on persistence to Bachelor's degree were studied using data from the national longitudinal Beginning Postsecondary Student Survey for 1989-90 freshmen. The subsample of 3,188 students were enrolled full-time in four-year institutions; persistence was defined as attainment of the Bachelor's degree from the institution…

This CD-ROM presents data from the National Postsecondary Student Aid Studies (NPSAS) conducted in 1992-93, 1989-90, and 1986-87. Students who began their postsecondary education in 1989-90 were also surveyed in 1992 as part of the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study First Followup. The NPSAS is a comprehensive study that is…